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This tutorial briefs you on how to use the Hosted VICIdial Demo. It will make most sense to someone who has some experience operating a predictive / auto dialer.
Note: While registering for the demo if you got a popup asking you to use a SIP phone for the dialer, then this other tutorial is what you should be reading.

I have split it into 4 sections. Section 2 and 3 will help you get up and running with using Hosted VICIdial Demo.

1. Things already configured

After you register for the dialer demo and log into your VICIdial server, you will find that most of the activities you need to perform as a VICIdial administrator are already done for you. Details are as follows:

Phones login: 10 phone accounts are already created. Phone logins are from e701 to e710 with passwords same as phone login. The phone account e701 is configured with the phone number which was provided while registering for Hosted dialer demo.

Agents login: 10 agent accounts are already created. Agent logins are from 7771 to 7710 with passwords same as the agent login.

Campaign: A default campaign "Campaign 01" is already created. The campaign is set to manual dialing.

Lists: A default list "LIST 01" is already created and is assigned to "Campaign 01". A set of sample leads file is uploaded into list "LIST 01", so that you can start testing the demo rightaway without you having to create new lists and uploading leads into it. Steps to create lists and uploading leads into the campaign is explained later in this tutorial.

Carrier: A carrier is a VoIP trunk provided by the VoIP service provider to route your incoming/outgoing calls. For the hosted dialer demo we have already configured a VoIP trunk (carrier) for you.

2. Things to be done

If you are testing out the Demo hosted dialer then you can skip this section and move on to "Start operating the Hosted dialer" section.

There are 2 things which we thought that you need to know in order to operate your Hosted dialer demo:

Configuring Phone accounts.

Uploading leads into the campaign.

Please note that you can also modify your campaign settings if you want to, but mostly it would not be required. Modifying campaign settings is described later in this section.

2.1 Configuring Phone accounts
While you register for the demo, you are asked for a phone number. This phone number is configured in the phone account e701. Steps to configure the rest of the phones is explained below in snapshots.

For configuring Phone account, Login as administrator, click on "Admin" section, move on "Phones" and then select the phone to configure.

below image displays the list of the phones.
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Lets see how to configure phone account e702 with the phone number "1200000011".

To configure phone account e702, click on e702 to view its details.

Edit the "Dial plan number" and add the phone number(including ISD code) "1200000011" to "1555" such that the resultant "Dial plan number" must be "15551200000011".

Keep rest of the settings to its default values. "1555" added at the beginning is the dialplan prefix.

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Once the dialplan prefix is edited, click on submit button, and the phone e702 is configured.

After the configuring the phone account, when the agent logs into VICIdial web console using this phone account, the phone number mentioned will get an incoming call from the VICIdial server connecting him to the VICIdial session.

2.2 Uploading leads into the default campaign
For uploading leads into a campaign, first create a list, assign it to a campaign and then upload leads into that list.

Login as Administrator and click on 'lists'. Click on create a new list.
Options provided are

After list is created, upload leads into it.For uploading leads click on 'lists'. Click on Load new leads.Leads file should be in .xls,.csv or plain text format. See sample leads file. This file can actually be used to test the dialer.Enter following details in the list-loader page.

Clicking on submit button opens up a new page, select matching VICIdial columns against your lead file columns and click on 'ok to process'.
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After submitting, it displays a message about the status of your leads.In ideal case it should display a message as GOOD: n-1 BAD: 1 and TOTAL: n where n is the no of entries in your leads file. The GOOD and BAD entries depends upon the quality of your leads file.
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If quality of the leads file is good and you have followed the above mentioned procedure, leads will be uploaded into the campaign after one minute.

In this section you saw how to configure your phone, upload leads into campaign and also modify campaign settings. Next section shows you how to get started with using VICIdial server.

3. Start operating a Hosted Dialer

Now that your Agents are created, phone logins configured, campaign created and leads uploaded into it, lets see how you can start using the hosted VICIdial server. Section below shows the series of steps that the Agent performs to login into the VICIdial web console and start making/receiving calls. Steps are followed by the screen shots wherever needed. Demonstration given below is for Agent 7771 logged into phone extension e701. i.e

5. On submit, you are redirected to VICIdial console and the phone number configured in e701 will receive an incoming call from the VICIdial server connecting you to the session.

If your campaigns dial method is set to manual dialing then click on 'DIAL NEXT NUMBER' to start dialing from the leads or if campaigns dial method is set to ratio/automatic then click on "RESUME" so that the dialer starts calling from the leads and connects the call to you.
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6. To finish a call, click on 'HANGUP CUSTOMER'. It will redirect you to disposition page, there you can enter the outcome of the call and click on submit.
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After clicking on submit, you will be redirected back to the VICIdial console where you can start making new calls.

7. Agent phones can also be configured using SIP soft phones. See this tutorial on how to set up SIP soft phones.

4. Sign-up

The demo above has a daily limit, after which the server will automatically shut down. However, your account will automatically be credited with demo credit after a few days, when you can resume your experimentation. Do not go beyond a single agent when in demo mode.
Signing up after the demo is also easy. Start depositing money into your prepay account, details of which are sent in the email when you register for the demo. You do not have to use WarmConnect minutes in production. The first payment must be of USD200 by PayPal. This will not appear immediately in your account till we cross check with you. Subsequent payments will be immediately credited. On first payment the demo server above will automatically be converted to production.
As a security measure, your calling is limited to 35 low cost destinations. contact us via the forums after sign up if you want to call other destinations.